Dear School of St. Mary Families,

As emphasized in the parent communication you received from the Archdiocese of Chicago, the School of St. Mary will not reopen before the statewide school closure order is lifted. You should plan for e-learning and alternative learning to continue through at least April 30th. We will let you know when a date to reopen the school system is established. Our hope is to resume classes before the end of the academic year. 

On March 30th, Governor Pritzker announced that remote learning days will begin for schools statewide on March 31st. and continue until in-person instruction can resume.  Our e-learning/alternate learning days are considered remote learning days.  Remote learning days are considered pupil attendance days for calculation of the length of the school term. March 17th through March 30th has been deemed Act of God days.  Both Act of God and e-learning/alternative days will count toward the minimum length of the school year and do not need to be made up. 

With the change to remote learning, we have had to make some adjustments and cancellations with the school calendar.  Calendar changes that we have planned for at this time are:

Additionally, due to the change to remote learning, the ACT Aspire testing, Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and the 8th grade U.S. Constitution test have all been canceled.

Please know that a lot of discussions went into deciding what events to postpone and what to cancel.   We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.  Future dates are to be determined at this time.

As many of our staff are now utilizing Zoom in their remote learning environments, please know that the company's CEO, Eric Yuan, has responded to recent hacking incidents by updating the service's privacy policies and creating special protections and special features specifically for use by schools. Among these new features is the ability to "lock" the door of your virtual classroom and to remove any unwanted participants. Our staff has also received guidance on how to secure their virtual classrooms.  Additionally, as another layer of security, we have created email accounts for our students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade.  We will be able to disable Zoom access to anyone that does not have an @schoolofstmary.org account.  Thus, the only people who can access Zoom school meetings are those with @schoolofstmary.org accounts. This may be inconvenient for now, but it is worth it for the added layer of security.  Parents of students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade should be on the lookout for an email from the school with your student's email account and temporary login.    

Third Quarter Report Cards will be sent home electronically on Thursday, April 9th.  We moved the end of the 3rd Academic Quarter to Friday, March 13th.  Students missing work assigned prior to remote learning, need to contact their teacher.  Teachers have begun grading and will be entering grades into PowerSchool for the 4th Academic Quarter starting today.  Please contact your child's teacher directly to discuss missing assignments.

Prior to the change to remote learning, Ms. Baniewicz and Dr. Carlini attended math articulation meetings at both Lake Forest High School (LFHS) and Loyola Academy (LA). All of the local area schools were in attendance at the LFHS meeting (public and private schools). We learned that while all of the schools present are using different textbook programs for Algebra 1 at this time, we are all covering the same curriculum. The Common Core State Standards are being achieved here at SOSM, and are in-line with the surrounding public and private schools, as well as with LFHS.  

LA also hosted a middle school articulation that included mostly their private feeder schools. In terms of Placement Testing for Incoming Freshmen at Loyola Academy, Dr. Carlini and Ms. Baniewicz remain in constant contact with the high school. LA will provide us with details once they are finalized. Just as with LFHS, we are on track with the other LA feeder schools and LA with our pacing in Algebra 1.

One of the focuses that we at SOSM are trying to include is digital learning. Digital learning is taking place at LFHS and at LA. We want to ensure our students are ready for this type of learning environment.  Digital learning includes being fluent in the use of graphing calculators as well as the use of online math resources and textbooks.

We encourage all of our students, in Kindergarten through 8th grade, to diligently practice their basic math facts during this period of remote learning. Our students should consistently and constantly be reviewing basic skills, such as multiplication and division, operations with fractions, and order of operations. These are skills necessary for success at the current level and beyond.

Although public Masses are suspended, the Parish Staff are still working to support our Parish as well as our School.  The Parish will continue to incur utility, insurance and maintenance expenses. Payroll and benefits are still being paid, yet the collection basket is not being passed on Sunday.  Please prayerfully consider continuing to support your parish by mailing your contribution to the Parish Office or scheduling your online donation.

Ways To Give:

 

Mail Your Contribution:

Church of St. Mary

c/o Business Office

201 E. Illinois

Lake Forest, IL  60045

 

OR

 

Online Giving:

Schedule your recurring donations via our online giving safe and secure portal, GiveCentral.  You don't have to leave your home. Go to: Church of St. Mary GiveCentral. 

Congratulations to the former Pastor of the Church of St. Mary, Fr. Michael McGovern.  Pope Francis has appointed him as Bishop of Belleville Diocese following the resignation of Bishop Edward K. Braxton.  The appointment was announced April 3 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.   Congratulations Fr. McGovern!

In closing, please continue to pray for the health and well-being of everyone, and to remember that no problem is too big for God to handle.